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Some unions are more collusive than others

by Jeremy Weiland

Posted:
12/23/2012 01:42:08 PM MST

Defenders of "right to work" laws often argue that unions are
collusive and extortive in a way that is simply unfair to employers.

Neither workers nor management, they say, should be forced to
negotiate through unions, and "right to work" simply levels the
playing field by ensuring that employees can always negotiate directly
with management.

The whole point of labor unions, in the minds of RTW supporters, is to
exploit the Wagner Act requirement that parties "negotiate in good
faith," thereby moving wages and benefits up in a way a free market in
labor would never allow. Jason Sorens even compares unions with Mafia
protection rackets in this regard ("Right-to-Work: An Inflammatory
Analogy," Pileus, December 17).

To describe this line of reasoning as selective would be a gross
understatement. Labor is not the only interest engaging in collective
bargaining. What about the individuals involved in the employing
corporation? Aren't these businesses effectively "capital unions"
exploiting incorporation laws to achieve a better bargaining position
relative to labor? Isn't that why investors pool their resources and
form businesses - to get better deals in the market through economies
of scale? Isn't that why they try to get investors rather than simply
borrowing all the money for their start-up costs - to spread the risk
and the reward?

Labor unions are only one side of this story. To emphasize collusion
on the workers' side is to leave another form of collusion totally
unaddressed.

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Corporations are capital unions, organizations whose
members work together to negotiate wages and benefits (and other
costs, of course) downwards to get the best return for themselves. Why
is one form of collusion wrong and the other not?

I'd add that, in historical comparison to labor unions, corporations
are much more fully creatures of the state. While labor unions have
existed for much of their history in legally unrecognized forms,
arising from the spontaneous organizing efforts of workers themselves,
incorporation has always been a government-chartered,
government-privileged, and therefore necessarily statist activity.

There's nothing "free market" in the fact that corporations are dealt
with on their own, special terms. Conferring limited liability, entity
status, and other privileges on corporations is intervention to skew
the market, a crime that can only be laid at the feet of the state and
the capitalists that run it.

I view the RTW movement as not only the argument that capital should
get to deal with labor in a privileged manner, but also as a defense
of the entire balance of power between employers and employees. It's
about more than just authoritarianism and a system that favors capital
over labor. It's also about the legal codification of class
distinctions inherent in the structure of production.

To the extent that capitalists decry so-called "class warfare," they
are glossing over the privileged terms on which they themselves do
business - claiming there are no classes of consequence while
entrenching their own class, allegedly deferring to the market, while
actually ensuring that market always delivers the balance of power
they desire.

If RTW folks truly believe that each and every worker deserves the
right to negotiate individually with the capital union, why stop
there? Why not also grant each and every shareholder, investor,
creditor, and other owner of the corporate capital union the right to
negotiate individually with the worker himself or his labor union? Why
should both workers and owners be forced to deal with the extractive,
exploitative management class as the exclusive agent of the
corporation? If it's unfair for the labor union to monopolize labor
relative to a given employer, isn't it equally unfair for the capital
union to monopolize capital relative to a given employee?

The reason is that capital unions are politically and legally favored
in labor negotiations, because they have always been favored. Our
entire political economy is built around doing business on their
terms. If you want a genuinely free market in labor, you can start by
ridding yourself of the biased narratives that explain how collective
bargaining is virtuous and crucial for those who have money, but
unnecessary and evil for those who don't.

Jeremy Weiland is a web developer, musician, and activist in Richmond,
Virginia. In addition to participating in the Richmond Left
Libertarian Alliance to promote voluntary society in the central
Virginia region, Jeremy also runs RadicalRichmond.net to help
coordinate activists to common goals. Jeremy is married with one
beagle.